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Globalisation

Australian impacts

Christopher Sheil (ed.)

What impact is globalisation is having on Australia? What pressures does it apply to those who influence and make policy? What choice is there? Globalisation: Australian Impacts (UNSW Press) analyses these questions in key contexts.

Without presupposing any particular definition of globalisation, 18 Australian thinkers write about the meaning and effects in their own particular field. Each chapter assesses the state of play in relation to an area or issue that is critical to Australian society and public policy.

The book shows that globalisation has different meanings and different implications, depending on the policy context. Each chapter proposes new policy directions, and the book as a whole provides a composite map of globalisation's continuing impact on Australia. The author's reject the ideas that globalisation is inevitable, that globalisation and the nation-state are necessarily opposing forces, and that there are no policy choices available to Australia.

Edited by Christopher Sheil, the contributors are:

John Quiggin: Finance

Peter J Rimmer: Transport

Ros Eason: Telecommunications

Terry Flew & Stuart Cunningham: Media

Michael Paddon: Corporations

Patricia Ranald: Unions

Kevin Rudd: Governance

Roy Green & Andrew Wilson: Industry

Clive Hamilton: Environment

Terri Seddon & Simon Marginson: Education

Rai Small: Health

Deborah Mitchell: Welfare

Quentin Beresford: Rights

Lionel Orchard: Democracy

"In the introduction to a informed, comprehensive and interesting volume which considers the effects of globalisation on Australia, Christopher Sheil courageously addresses a serious difficulty with the term, globalisation. What, precisely, is it? ... Other chapters, all of them succinct, deal with finance, telecommunications, the media, corporations, unions, governance, industry, the environment, education, health, welfare, human rights, and democracy. Every concerned citizen can find something of interest in this challenging and informed book."

- James R. Levy, Labour History, No. 83, Nov. 2002.

"In an era of globalisation, Australians are very conscious of not being on Main Street. 'A Cul-de-Sac Off Main Street: Transport', a chapter by Professor Peter Rimmer of the Australian National University, in Globalisation: Australian Impacts, edited by Christopher Sheil (UNSW Press. 2001), makes sobering reading."

- Barry Jones

"Each of the chapters covers a seperate topic such as telecommunications, transport, media, environment, industry policy, health, education, welfare and democracy. This is the real strength of the book as it demonstrates the pervasive influence of globalisation, and allows for detailed empirical examination of diverse effects by subject matter experts."

"As John Quiggin points out, the debate is about the fundamental question of whether the world economy will be controlled by the individual and collective actions of governments, as it was during the post-war boom, or by capital markets, as it was in the 19th century."